Immigration

Flora is an international municipality both in terms of international cooperation, but also in terms of being a multicultural society.

Immigration to Flora happens in two different ways. Work-immigration is when people come because they have found a job in Flora. These are the majority of immigrants in the municipality. Flora is depending on this type of immigration to add important competence and labour to our work force in different sectors.

Secondly we have refugees and asylum seekers. A refugee is someone given the status as a refugee by the United Nations (UNHCR) or by the Norwegian government. Each year Norway normally accepts around 1500 refugees coming from different UNHCR-camps around the world. They will settle in different municipalities all around the country, after an agreement between the national and local government. The town council dicides how many refugees should settle in Flora each year, and since 1987 Flora has welcomed more than 1000 refugees from 23 diffenrent nationalities. More than half of these have moved out of Flora again. In 2011 the council decided that Flora should settle 35 refugees.

An asylum seeker is someone seeking protection or recognition as a refugee by the Norwegian government. While these persons are awaiting a response from UDI on their application, he or she usually resident in a camp for asylu m seekers.

In Flora, the Immigration Centre is responsible for welcoming refugees/immigrants. The Immigration Centre is divided into three units, Solbakken Camp for asylum seekers, the Integration department and the school for adult immigrants. Each of these units has their own areas of responsibilities.